I’d been following the Occupy Hong Kong protests in the news since they started about a month ago and since I’m living in Saigon, I was able to find a cheap flight to Hong Kong so I decided to check it out. Even though I’d seen the footage on TV and online, nothing can prepare you for what you’ll see in person. There are protests in several locations in Hong Kong but Occupy Central is the most shocking. They’ve shut down a major highway running right through the center of the city.
And what’s interesting is everyone is now using this highway as a pedestrian walkway through the city. There is an eerie, post-apocalyptic feel to the whole thing. Giant skyscrapers loom in the background. There are barricades thrown together to keep traffic out. There are students in tents, most with “no pictures please” printed in both English and Cantonese. There are speakers on a makeshift stage with a sound system giving speeches in Cantonese. Banners, statues, and other forms of art are visible everywhere you turn. I was there at night and there was a relaxed, almost celebratory mood. Students planted trees in the highway. Visitors posed for pictures and added their message to the Democracy Wall. There was no police presence at all.
The protest in Mong Kok had a much larger police presence and had mostly been broken up by the time I saw it. It’s always unsettling to see the police in such large numbers, in a show of force. It brought back memories of 1999 and the Battle in Seattle where WTO protests were met with an over-the-top militarized response. I got caught up in the conflict because it was right outside my door. Military vehicles rolled up the hill, police and National Guard lobbing canisters of tear gas at the peaceful crowd. I’d never seen anything like it.
It also reminded me of the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. I had gone there with a girlfriend from Tokyo, her first ever trip to the U.S. The protesters were everywhere, closely watched by a very visible police force. Even the taxi driver was tuned to WBAI, which was giving updates of the protests. We got a little too close to the action, though in truth it was hard to avoid. But I remember a moment where I could see the police coming at the protesters from two different directions, trying to block them in and I knew it was going to end badly. My girlfriend turned to me and said, “Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“Okay, we can go now.”
We got out of there just in time. It was a completely illegal and brutal round up of everyone on the street: protesters, the press, commuters coming home from work.
I didn’t see much of the Mong Kok confrontation in person, just saw it on TV the night before we were there. Police and Chinese mafia attacking protesters. But still they were out the next day, though in smaller numbers. Everyone notices. Many take photos or video with their smart phones. But then they move along and get on with their day. Business as usual.